UK Regions See Rental Growth

Rental prices across the UK have risen in the three months to February 2015, with the largest rates of growth found in the regions, figures from the latest HomeLet Rental Index show.

Seven out of the 12 UK regions experienced growth. The north-east saw the biggest increase, with rates rising by 3.1%, whilst the south-west saw 2.5% growth. Strong performance was also recorded in the north-west, Yorkshire and the Humber, and East Anglia.

In comparison, rental prices in London remained static over the three months. Additionally, for new tenancies which commenced in the month of February, rates in London were 2.5% lower than they were in January. Again, this didn’t reflect the activity across the rest of the country, with new tenancy rates in Northern Ireland increasing by 7.2% and by 6.2% in the north-east.

Martin Totty, Chief Executive Officer of HomeLet, said: “Last year saw the London rental market outstrip the rest of the UK in terms of rent price growth but what we are seeing so far in 2015 is the private rental market becoming much more broad based with the strongest rent price growth occurring outside of the capital.”

Since the turn of the year, property experts have predicted a strong 12 months in the regional market. Strutt and Parker forecast that the residential property market would grow by 5% in 2015, with the best rates of growth found outside Greater London.

In February Savills predicted that Scottish property investment would outperform the UK average this year, whilst financial property experts from HSBC dubbed Manchester as the UK’s ‘second city for investment.’

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